Pieter van den Keere was born in 1571, the son of a type-founder, Hendrik Van den Keere. In 1584, he left the Netherlands with his sister, Colette, for England. There he befriended major Dutch cartographer, Jodocus Hondius (1563-1612), and Pieter van den Berghe who was to write the text for Keere's later Netherlands atlas, "Germania Inferior." Hondius married Colette in 1587. Keere left England in 1593 and returned to the Netherlands, settling in Amsterdam. Between 1600 and 1621, Keere was highly prolific, producing a number of map plates (Koeman, 217). His work includes: "Ireland" (1592), "Nordens Speculum" (1593), "Europe" (1595), "Kaert Thresoor" (1598), "English Counties" (1595), "Mercator-Hondius" (1606), "World" (1608), "America" (1614), "Germania Inferior (1617) and "Totius Rheni" (1632) (Tooley, 348). He is best known for the "many loose-leaf maps" he created (Koeman, 217). His work can be seen in atlases by many other famous cartographers including Jannson's "Lich der Zeevaert" (1620) and Hondius's "Atlas Minor" (1628). In 1623, following his wife's death and his subsequent remarriage to Aneken Winnighs, Keere sold most of his map plates (Koeman, 217).

This map was originally published in 1608 and reissued in its third state in 1621 by Jan Jansson (1588-1664) with Jannson's latinate sigunature, Ioannes Ianssonius.

Bottom right corner cut out of map so that one of the wonders of the ancient world is missing. Small tears along right and left edges repaired with tape. Call number written on verso in pencil in lower left corner. Written at top edge of verso in pencil: “Amerika 1650.”

Digital Reproduction Information

Scanned from original map at 600 dpi in TIFF format, resized and enhanced at 400 ppi using Adobe Photoshop, and imported as JPEG2000 using ContentDM's software JPEG2000 Extension. 2008.